July 2025 • Nebraskaland 37
And for several years in the 1880s, it
all seemed to be true. Rainfall really did
increase across Nebraska even as more
land was plowed. A modern scientist
would have warned people not to
confuse correlation with causality, but
nobody worried too much about that.
Then came the drought years of the
1890s, which were worse than anything
most non-Indigenous people had seen.
The new settlers hadn't lived here long
enough to know that such extremes are
normal. And in many cases, they didn't
even know the area's recent history. In
his book "The Last Days of the Rainbelt," geographer David
Wishart writes that due to recurring drought, some parts of the
high plains (including southwestern Nebraska) were settled
and abandoned by "three or more waves of homesteaders
before successful farming took root."
Most of the Great Plains became cattle country. Successful
farming in arid regions came only after the development of
irrigation. Rain doesn't follow the plow, but you might say
the plow follows the center pivot.
N
Visit NSHS's website at history.nebraska.gov.
A Clay County farm, showing its owners' humbler previous residence in Ohio. Published in 1882, A.T. Andreas' "History of the
State of Nebraska" is full of fl attering images of prosperous farms, usually shown with plantings of trees.
From the promotional material on the back of "Map of Burlington and Missouri
River Railroad Lands in Nebraska, Columbus District, 1890." NSHS M782 1890 B92b
